How hard is it to write?

Writing isn't hard. Storytelling is hard.

GOOD storytelling is even harder.

And writing speed is meaningless.

I don't think the speed at which someone writes is an indicator of how hard it is to do. People have different styles and methods that they use to write, some people are more experienced, and some people are just fast. As @ISNEKO said telling a story is hard. There is a lot that goes into it, and that can be difficult to master, especially since that story is likely to change from one draft to the next.

I personally can't write anything unless I have a clear picture in my head of the scene I want to write and then are times where I can get caught up in structuring a sentence just write to express what I want properly. Even simple stories have their complexities because they are simple, and sometimes the simplest things can be the hardest. For something the hardest part is the time and dedication, you have to put into and not necessarily putting words on a page. It takes a lot of mental focus to do it.

Based on your example, it looks to me like there are other factors playing into why author #1 is struggling, cause it doesn't seem like their heart is as into it as author #2. Like I said, experience can play a lot into speed and how challenged that person may feel. What makes writing hard can vary from person to person, but I think it's safe to say the the mechanics (putting words on a page) is relatively easy.

Speed doesn't always equal quality, but again that doesn't apply to everyone. Is someone is faster at sewing or drawing, then maybe they are more experienced, maybe their work isn't as detailed or complex. Even if they are fast, maybe it is hard for them to do and the quality suffers because of it. Maybe they are placing too much focus on speed. It all depends on the person. That's what I mean by speed isn't a sole indicator of difficulty (and I realize I should have specifically said "solely" so my apologies on that). There a lot of variables that go into writing that makes it challenging and complex.

For me it really depends on my mood and the environment I'm in . Like most activities in life, it's a lot easier to get something done if I'm left alone and can focus on the activity on hand. I can't write most times because I'm watching my toddler, or my husband is watching tv in the background, or my head is filled with other concerns at the moment of things that need my attention.

And even if I'm given a moment of quiet by myself and my head is clear and I'm in the zone, I'm still only going to write the way I write. I'm no Proust, or Shelley, etc. I can't and probably never will be able to write like them. I'm simply writing stories I find enjoyable, but the language itself is not necessarily poetic, advanced, or beautifully crafted at every sentence...

TBH my standards for good writing are pretty high and I don't think the majority of modern day works I've read be it online, or a published book even meets those standards... For example I loved Harry potter, and I enjoyed the story and world building and did love the books, but the writing itself is really bad.

The perception may come from the mental aspects of it, such as world building and descriptions, that sort of thing and not the actual physical act of writing. Maybe it comes from the pressure people but on themselves to achieve a high goal or they compare themselves to other people's work. Some people are easily distracted. Perceptions can come in a ton of different forms.

For some it could be language barrier if they are trying to write in a language that is not native to them.

This is more of what you are looking for?

I'd try to answer this, but I'm not sure I know to do so without derailing from the type of answer you're looking for?? I think a big issue here is the combination of not being clear with what answer you want, and not phrasing the question correctly. It's too simply worded and open-ended to answer, like "how hard is it to write?" could mean a number of things alone without the context you're trying to give people to properly answer it the way you want it answered.

First things first, what do you define as writing? People are going off on the different parts of writing, such as plotting, dialogue, world-building, the word usage, there's too many aspects of it to just generalize it for a question when you're looking for something specific.

Secondly, hard is a subjective word, and the range of difficulty varies from person to person. But hell, the word difficulty can be based on different things as well, like all the different sections I mentioned earlier, these are things people can have an easy or hard time with, whatever that means here. Do you mean to ask how long the process takes as a result of personal nitpicking and editing, or lack of creativity to come up with something, or time span of which you do all these things.. again, this is so open to a number of answers.

Side note that relates to what I'm saying about you leaving questions open-ended, the author 1 and 2 example you gave. If you don't give enough context, people are gonna fill in the blanks with what they think you're trying to get at, dude.

You keep saying that you don't get how we're seeing, then let's try this instead for a second, how would you answer this question and how would you interpret the author example had it came from someone else? And to make things easier on everyone else here, what would you define as easy in this scenario? Would you consider writing the way that you do it as a hobby, a passion, or a job? I'm hoping the answers to these will help us all see where your head's at with all this so we can answer the original question and any tangents on the subject better.

Here's my take on it:

Writing is easy. Good writing is hard.

Anyone can sit down and come up with a plot, characters, and write a hundred pages about it, but the difference is in how much energy and passion the writer focuses on the work. I used to think that writing was easy, and that was because ideas came to me naturally, but like when a person starts drawing, they're always going to improve. There is always room for growth! I've been dreaming about writing my whole life, actually writing for seventeen years, and seriously writing for the last five.

Hell, I look back on things I wrote barely a year ago, and they're just bad, bad, bad.

General rule of thumb: any book that was ever enjoyed had to be conceived, written, looked over, edited, perfected. Then the length cut in half and the process repeated.

There are many little nuances that go into writing, like styles of point of view, tense, if the author switches between characters or not, foreshadowing, symbolism, long nights staring at thesauruses, agonizing over if the alliteration should be put in or avoided, making sure you don't use the same word twice in the same paragraph, running out of words and thinking of a completely new way to describe the color of your characters eyes besides the word "blue", etc, etc, etc.

If you care about what you're writing, then writing is never easy.

Mental aspects aside, it takes quite a toll, physically, as well! As a writer, myself, I probably sit at a desk and work for about five hours a day. My back hurts from not sitting in my chair properly, my neck hurts from looking between the keyboard and the monitor, I live a sedentary lifestyle because of my passion and have to make time to move around lest I risk blood clots.

As for hiring different people to write different characters! It's only a waste of resources if the writer is bad lmao

For example, I'm writing a fanfic with my friend at the moment, and while we are writing it word by word and line by line together, when it comes to the interactions of the characters, my personal writing style better fits the voice of one character, and my friend's is suited to the other. Together it makes for a more organic, authentic experience.

ALSO speed NEVER equals quality!

You can be speedy and write well, but it is r a r e

But that's my opinion!

For me, writing in the my native language is easy - at least, if talking about short stories. I'm just putting story which is already in my head, into words, and it subjectively feels as something natural, because the process of thinking itself uses speech. So, if I'm feeling enough inspiration, I usually easily catch the flow when doing it, and feel not much tension. Writing in english, of course, requires more effort (and gives much more mistakes as well ).
But what is really hard is to write a good story. Too bad I don't know anything about how to write stories which will please not only me, but the readers too
Long stories are more hard for me than short ones, as well.

Writing is hard or to put it clearly....good writing is hard.
I'm a fast typer, I learned when I wanted to be a scribe. I write in all aspects of my life from my novel/script for a comic, at work or at uni. I guess my point is: the speed in which words are put down does nothing to show "good" writing or a "good" writer it's the quality of the words and what they tell.
I also have physical problems with my wrists so typing fast for long periods of time or just typing in general causes pain-- that also needs to be taken into consideration and it makes it difficult to write.
Putting down ideas, simple plots, outlines can be quick and easy for some-- but to turn that into a readable story, with good grammar, no plot holes, flowing dialogue, no excessive use of description or too little of it...that's hard.
I find writing a challenge buts it's an enjoyable experience.....and it's hard
Just bc I love something doesn't make it easy, it makes it worth it and that's the feeling I get.

I just addressed the question with my own opinion and experiences. I hope I answered it

There is no such thing as good writing. It doesn't exist. There is only good rewriting. Iteration makes writing good. Nothing that comes straight out of your head is actually good quality.

I'm being hyperbolic, but the sentiment is true.

To me it seems more that you keep making open ended discussion topics on a forum, expecting people to answer your open question the way you want in the way you perceive it, and getting upset/defensive when people decide to interpret the question how they want and have an actual open discussion about the topic. You then harp on specifics that you feel they misinterpreted... meanwhile you have misleading titles, and are not clear from the start what you really want from your posts.

I adore writing and I take it very seriously, but it will always be a hobby and a form of catharsis for me rather than something I try to do as a living because it's just simply not viable to rely on a career as uncertain as creative writing. But, since I don't do it for a living, I think that's the biggest thing that factors into it being easy and fun for me. I think that, for people who do it for a living, it is probably FAR more stressful.

I write pretty slow, I think, even though I do write every day. I think the reason why I write pretty slow is that I really try my best to be descriptive and artistic when I write--even though I'm not all that good at it. Another thing about writing is the misconception that writing long-form stories like novels is really easy. It isn't. It is far more stressful and at times frustrating than writing a little short story. I actually really needed a break from writing my novel so last night I had a blast switching over to writing a short story about an android and a Preacher and I think I wrote like 1000 words in two hours! Not bad <3 I do usually do a lot of editing as I go, too, which probably is what takes the most time and effort when writing.

My advice to new writers is always to at least try and start out writing short stories because they really are a blast and a ton of fun to write and they really do help you develop your craft. Getting words on a page is easy, making them pretty words is difficult. This is why, once again, short stories are so much easier to write than novels. Because they're shorter, it is a lot easier to be more artful with them.

But really, I think how hard writing is varies from person-to-person. One of my sisters literally described it as agony as she looks at a blank word page and ponders what to write while sweating buckets haha. Meanwhile for me, it is literally one of my coping skills.